


Just a Summer Breeze

by Plonq



Series: Bolt [1]
Category: Bolt (2008)
Genre: Comedy, Gen, Humor, Innuendo, Paranormal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:01:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24763510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Plonq/pseuds/Plonq
Summary: Bolt refuses to abandon the idea that maybe - just maybe - not all of the powers he had in his show were special effects. As the strange path he follows in pursuit of this power plows right through Mittens's nap time, the cat decides that a simple prank might be just the thing needed to bring the pooch back down to Earth.Soon it becomes clear, though, that there are wheels within wheels, and she is not the only prankster in the house.And who's to say the dog isn't right after all?
Series: Bolt [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1802179
Comments: 8
Kudos: 8





	Just a Summer Breeze

**Author's Note:**

> I want to give a shout-out to Bolt_DMC whose wonderful fan stories set in the Bolt universe inspired me to write this one.
> 
> I always welcome feedback on my stories, critical or otherwise. Don't be shy.

"Hmmmmm."

Mittens groaned and rolled over onto her back the moment she heard the beginnings of the hum. The little tuxedo cat flung a foreleg across her face, in part to help tame the twitch that had begun in her left eye. "For love of ... what is it _this_ time?" she muttered sardonically.

"Hmmmmm."

She turned onto her side and pulled down the edge of the cushion nest in which she had, until two hums ago, been napping. She blinked the sleep from her eyes until she was able to focus on the source of the irritant.

Bolt was sitting back on his haunches with his eyes closed and his front paws pressed together in an añjali mudra as if he were preparing to bid someone "Namaste". The cat could not see any obvious persons in the room for him to greet, so she assumed he was attempting the sukhasana pose.

"I'd never have pegged the pooch as having much interest in yoga or meditation," thought Mittens. "He's definitely not rockin' that pose, either. I think _downward dog_ is probably more his style." The feline yawned, and watched him strain to hold the position and hum for another thirty seconds before she spoke. "Bolt," she said tersely.

"Hrm?" The shepherd whined and fumbled forward to his feet at the sound of his name. He spun and swivelled his head frantically until he spotted the cat waving from her perch among the pillows. "Oh, hi Mittens," he said amiably. His ears drooped with contrition. "Sorry if I woke you - I didn't know you were in here."

The cat brushed off the apology with a flippant wave of her paw. "It was almost time to change up my nap spot anyway," she said. "I figure the sun should be shining in Penny's bedroom window in a few minutes." Mittens yawned again and performed one of those long, luxuriant stretches that only cats have ever truly mastered. "So what's with all the moaning and groaning? Do you need an emergency vet visit?"

Bolt yipped and looked around nervously. When his hackles had settled a bit, he hoarsely whispered, "Don't even _joke_ about that, Mittens." Even in his hushed tone, the feline could pick out a small waver in the dog's voice. "What if Penny's mom was in hearing range? You know how trigger-happy she is about trips to the doctor or vet. Stub a toe or scuff a paw and it's off to the waiting room."

"Yeah," said Mittens drily, "that might be a problem if she understood cat. About all I've managed to teach her is, 'feed me', 'pet me', and 'for goodness sakes, woman, rub my belly'." The feline purred dreamily and rested her chin on her paws. "That woman has magic fingers." She snapped out of her reverie a moment later and raised her head again. "But all kidding aside," she said, pointing at the pooch with a quick jab of her right paw, "what's with all the humming?"

The shepherd's ears perked back up again. "Oh, _that_ ," he enthused brightly. Bolt broke into a smile and his tail thumped heartily while he spoke. "I think I've figured out what has been missing in my earlier attempts at this!" Bolt sat back on his haunches and pressed his paws together in front of his chest again. "I was forgetting to gather my chi. I have been giving it a lot of thought and it occurred to me that if I meditate first and draw from the energy around me, I should be able to channel it and..."

Mittens hopped out of her pillow bed, landed gracefully beside the pooch, and held up a paw to his muzzle to cut off his stream of nonsense before he gathered _too_ much momentum. "Oh sweetie," she said silkily, "you go ahead and gather your chi, and buff your ka, and do whatever it is you think you need to do, but that hummin' ain't conducive to nappin'. I'll leave you to your fun." She stepped back and looked him up and down with a small frown. "Your lotus position could use a little work."

Bolt glanced down at his awkward pose and looked back up with a wan grin. "Well, yes," he admitted, "but I don't bend that way. This should still work though, right?"

"Uh ... Yeah," Mittens' tone was charitably unconvincing. "Sure - why not?" She reached out a paw and gave the dog a comradely pat on the shoulder. "This will help you as much as any other pose would." She patted his shoulder again in a manner that was meant to convey support. "Anyway, I'll get out of your way so that you can gather your auras and do your re-enactment of Carrie." The cat turned to leave, giving her tail a little flick as she sauntered toward the door. "Just don't set any fires," she added without looking back.

The dog's reply stopped her in her tracks. "You don't believe me," he whimpered sadly.

Mittens glanced over her shoulder at the shepherd; Bolt had lowered his paws to the floor so that he could sit normally again and he was eying his feline friend with a cocked head and a hangdog expression. The cat turned and sat to face the dog. "It's not that I don't ... not ... believe you," she said very slowly, gesticulating with her paws while she spoke, "necessarily." Mittens sighed. "I just don't see why you are so sure you've suddenly turned telekinetic"

"It's not _suddenly_ ," barked Bolt with a deepening frown. He slapped his right paw into his left. "I think I explained this already last week. Back when I was still doing the show, when I didn't know that I was an actor, I _believed_ with all my heart that I had been engineered to possess these powers." The white shepherd stood and paced in a tight circle while he talked. "And I think that once or twice, I actually _did_ move things with my mind." He paused his circling to meet the cat's gaze while he tapped the side of his head with a paw. "I think if I can just get myself back to that state, where I _know_ that I can move things with my mind, then I will be able to do it again. I just need to have faith."

"Well, I have faith in you," said Mittens with a wry grin.

"You do?" said Bolt with a dubious cock of his head, but he gave his tail a tentative wag.

"I have complete faith in your belief that you can do this. You can count on me to be slightly less surprised than I might otherwise have been if - or when - you actually pull it off." Mittens stood and trotted away before the pooch had a chance to fully mull on her reply.

"Thanks," said Bolt with a nod. He frowned again and squinted at the departing cat. "... I think."

"Ah, Mittens, my feline friend, I see that you are up and about early!"

The cat was lost in her thoughts and had not noticed the hamster ball in the hallway until she was almost past it. "Hey, Rhino," she said shortly without breaking stride.

The hamster seemed oblivious to her implied dismissal, and with a quick kick he set his ball rolling along beside the cat. "You are moving to your new napping spot almost ten minutes early today, and looking less gruntled than your usual, sunny self," said Rhino amiably. "If there's something you'd like to unload on a friendly ear, I like to think that I meet your standards for sympathy and discretion."

Mittens gave a non-committal grunt.

"Cat's got your tongue, eh?" said the hamster, giving the side of his ball a jaunty poke with his elbow. "Trying to pussy-foot around your troubles?"

"Heh," said Mittens with a genuine chuckle. She stopped and sat facing the hamster in his ball. She waved a paw in the general direction of the living room. "It's Bolt," she said. "He's doing _that thing_ again."

"Ah, of course," said Rhino. The hamster sat back on his rump, tapped his front claws together and nodded sagely. "I hear you, sister. He's doing _that thing_. I'm with you on that up to the point of 'thing'. Maybe you could expand on that one for my benefit."

The cat leaned forward and gave the ball a light jostle with her paw, eliciting a yelp of surprise and indignation from its occupant. "C'mon, you know what I mean," she said with a long-suffering sigh. "He's convinced that he can still move things with his mind power like he did in the show."

"Oh," said Rhino, " _that_ thing." The hamster went silent for a moment and rubbed his chin while he pondered. "Who are we to say that he can't? Bolt is an amazing dog in every other respect. Far be it from his friends to put our own limits on what he can do. I mean, other than the clear scientific evidence against it, how can we be so sure he doesn't have some tiny bit of latent telekinetic ability in that amazing doggy head of his?"

The feline shrugged. "I guess I'm the Missouri of cats; show me. These New York peepers don't believe anything they don't see for themselves. "

"I understand you were an actor of sorts when you lived in New York," said the hamster pensively. "You acted tough, and aloof, and uncaring. Maybe you could put those chops to use for our friend and act like you think he _can_ do it." He buffed his right claws on his chest and held them up dramatically for inspection. "I did my own fair share of Shakespeare for one in front of the bedroom mirror at my previous home, so I'm sure I could hold up my end."

"I don't know, I mean..." Mittens looked back toward the living room for several, long moments before she sighed and turned back to the hamster. "I feel for the guy," she said, "I mean, he took a pretty hard fall from hero to zer... " She caught herself when she saw the hamster's eyes glistening as he anticipated the logical conclusion to her indictment. "Well, you know what I mean. He went from a super dog to a more ordinary pooch overnight. He wants this so bad, and it ain't gonna happen. I mean, if he could so much as flip a paperclip with his mind, he'd be over the moon. I think he'd put it to rest, then. Poor Wags just wants to be vindicated."

Rhino nodded and his expression took on a distant, unfocused look of aloof sagacity. "In the end, we _all_ want validation," he intoned to nobody in particular.

"Yeah, that and belly rubs," agreed Mittens. "If only there was some way we could help," The tuxedo cat once again waved a paw in the direction of the living room - then she froze, and a pensive look slowly crept over her face. The cat's whiskers slowly straightened and her eyes took on a coquettish gleam. Mittens raised an eyebrow and turned back to the hamster, fixing him with such an intense, speculative look that he rolled his ball a half-turn away. "Who's to say we couldn't lend him a ... _little_ hand?"

"Go on," said Rhino, but he raised his front paws in a defensive motion. "I'll hear you out, but I've seen that look on a cat before and I must warn you that I know Jiu Jitsu, Kung Fu, Karate, and several other martial-arts related terms.

Mittens laughed and her expression immediately softened. "Geez, I'm sorry Rhino," she said between chuckles. "I spent so long honing that look to deal with recalcitrant pigeons that I sometimes slip into it by accident. Old habits die hard, ya know." She shrugged and grinned slyly. "I've got an idea that I think you might like, and I need a small co-conspirator."

The hamster rolled his ball a bit closer and lowered his voice. "Conspiracy is right up my alley. I've got a pretty big list of conspiracies up my proverbial sleeve." Rhino balled and flexed his paws meaningfully. "Speaking of sleeves, when you say 'lend a little hand', I assume you're talking about mine."

Mittens nodded. "We both know how badly Bolt wants to prove he is telekinetic and how we both want him to succeed for our own reasons..."

"... and you want me to lend him a hand - or a _sleight_ of hand," said Rhino as his mind raced ahead.

"Yeah, that," said Mittens with a nod of assent. "Nothing too dramatic - just a little nudge here or there so that he believes it's working. I'm figuring some of the tchotchkes that Penny's mom keeps up on the buffet would be about your speed. There's lots of room to sneak around back there undetected; even _I_ could do it." The cat paused and assessed the rotund little hamster with a critical eye. "How are you at sneakin'?"

Rhino put a tiny hand over his round waist and bowed dramatically. "Madam, 'Sneak' is my middle name - among others. You point out what to move, and I'll move it. Shall we strike now whilst the iron is hot?"

"Naw," said Mittens, giving a quick side-to-side wave of her paw. "Let's do it tomorrow - oh, wait, tomorrow is brisket day. Let's make it Thursday. Wags is like clockwork, so if you can sneak into place just before ten, I'll be waiting for him when he shows up for practise."

"Then let us officially set this ploy afoot," said Rhino. He spat on his paw and pressed it to the inside of the ball. Mittens repeated the gesture, pressing her paw to the outside. "Bolt will get a good chuckle out of this when he finds out what we've done." When the cat did not respond immediately, the hamster frowned. "You _are_ planning to tell him after, aren't you?"

"Yes ... of course..." said Mittens cagily, "naturally we'll let him in on the joke after."

Rhino dropped to all fours in his ball. "Well, I'm going to head out there right now and cheer him on. Maybe with enough emotional support, we won't need to play our little prank." With those parting words, the hamster took off rolling and bouncing down the hall.

When Rhino arrived in the living room, he found Bolt curled up in the middle of the floor, poking listlessly at his squeaky carrot toy. The hamster rolled a full orbit around the dog before stopping again in front of the canine's muzzle.

"Calling it early today?" he enquired cheerily.

"The chakras are all out of balance," said Bolt with a clear sulk in his tone. He slapped a paw down on the carrot, eliciting a pitiful squeak from the hapless toy. He gave a sympathetic whine. "There are just too many Debbie Downers disrupting the flow of the auras."

"Chakras..." echoed the hamster. He leaned back in his ball, kicking out his hind feet and clasping his front paws behind his neck. "I'm impressed by how much you've been expanding your lexicon, sir." The dog merely shrugged, so he pressed on. "I'm guessing this 'Debbie Downer' you speak of has whiskers and a tail."

Bolt nodded. "I wish she had more faith in me, Rhino," said the dog. He gave the carrot another, more emphatic squeak. "I mean, I think she is being as supportive as she can be, but I can tell that Mittens thinks this whole thing is a lot of hooey."

"The lady is a skeptic," agreed Rhino. "Living paw-to-mouth by one's own wits for as long as she did can leave one questioning of outside agency. The lady believes what she can see with her own eyes and palp with her own paws."

"I know," sighed Bolt. He stood and flipped the carrot back onto his toy pile by the side of the room with a careless sweep of his paw. It landed with a pitiful 'peep' sound. "I know where she's coming from, but I just wish..." he trailed off and started pacing in a slow circle as he was wont to do when he was trying to gather his thoughts. "I just wish there was something I could say or do that would convince her to open her mind to more possibilities."

"Broaden her horizons," said Rhino.

"Expand her viewpoint," agreed Bolt with growing, tail-wagging enthusiasm. "We need to show her that there are more things in heaven and earth, Rhino, than are dreamt of in her philosophy."

"Bravo! That's the spirit," cheered the hamster. "Let's build on that energy, align those chakras, focus that chi and do your best Carrie re-enactment. Uh, Bolt...?"

At Rhino's last reference, the dog's face had dropped and his ears drooped a bit. "If I hear that Carrie reference again, I might do more of a Cujo re-enactment." The shepherd gave a wan grin at the hamster's shocked reaction. "I'm just kidding - I know you and Mittens mean well. You guys don't have to pretend like you really believe me." Rhino started to protest, but Bolt cut him off quickly. "I mean, I appreciate you guys being kind about it, but you're probably right; it's not like I don't have a history of self-delusion."

"Don't be so quick to write yourself off," said Rhino, "it really felt to me like you've been making progress on this. In her own way, I think Mittens is also rooting for you to succeed. Are you going to go and tell her that she's right, and you're giving up?"

Bolt flopped down on his side and frowned slightly. "I probably should," he agreed. "But ... but ..."

"But the good lady has a way of being insufferably right, eh?"

"Yeah," said Bolt dejectedly. "I can almost hear her smug purring as she prances by, rubbing the tip of her tail under my chin and saying, 'there's no shame in giving up, sweetie - at least you _tried_ '." He jumped back to his feet and began to pace out a loose figure-eight in the living room, circling the hamster's ball on one of the loops. "If only there was something I could do - some way to convince her for even a moment that she was _wrong_. I'd trade my carrot to see the look on her face..." He paused. "Maybe not the carrot," he amended hastily, "but, hm..." He stopped pacing and cast an appraising glance at the hamster.

"You sound like you have something in mind," said Rhino hesitantly.

"I do!" Bolt's face broke into a crooked grin with a wagging tail to match. "What if I told her that I had finally managed to move things using just my mind, and then I showed her by actually _doing_ it?" He gave Rhino an exaggerated wink, "with a bit of help, of course," he added.

"You want me to ... lend a little hand." Rhino blinked and sat back in his ball again, twiddling his thumbs over his chest. Bolt nodded emphatically and grinned. "What's the plan? Do you want me to, say, hide behind the buffet and give your telekinetic powers a 'hand' to impress the lady?" Bolt nodded again. "Only _you_ could come up with such a clever and cunning ploy as this, Bolt," the hamster said blandly. "I like the cut of your jib, sir."

Bolt broke out into a broad, tongue-lolling smile at the praise. "I hadn't thought that far ahead, but it's like you read my mind" he said eagerly. "I'll bring her in here tomorrow - wait, tomorrow is brisket day. Let's say Thursday morning we bring her in here, and I'll be all like, 'Hey Mittens, watch me move that thing over there with my mind.' And you sneak up behind it and give it a little jiggle." The dog's grin faded a bit and he lowered his voice. "Also," he added softly, "I know they do this to most dogs before they're adopted, but they didn't actually cut my jib. I don't think Penny's mom has noticed, so keep it down."

"It's just an expression that means I like the way you think," said Rhino absently. "... and she's not blind; it would be nuts to think she hasn't noticed," he added under his breath. The hamster wore a strangely enigmatic grin as he leaned forward in his ball and said in a conspiratorial tone, "Just a suggestion, but what's say we let _her_ pick the things for you to move? That way she won't suspect that you are cheating."

"Oh! That's even better," said Bolt enthusiastically. "This is going to be fun!"

"More than you can imagine," said the hamster with a strangely predatory smile.

Mittens sauntered into the living room right on time Thursday morning as Bolt was finishing his warm-up meditation. She planted herself beside the humming dog and groomed herself indifferently while he struggled to disentangle himself from his lotus position. Though she did not say so aloud, the cat was impressed at how he'd managed to contort himself into it. Bolt's hind legs finally sproinged free.

"Hey, Wags!" she said lightly, "you said to come here at ten because you were going to blow me, so I figured I should make an appearance to see what's shakin'."

"Blow your _mind_ ," said Bolt, blushing slightly under his white fur and casting a quick glance at the softly chortling buffet. "I said I was going to _blow_ your _mind_."

"Potato, puhtahto," said Mittens with an indifferent wave of her paw. "Blow me ... blow my mind - they're only a strap-on apart." She grinned at the dog's obvious discomfiture, but she relented. "In any event, I came. What was this mind-blowing thing you wanted to show me?"

"I'm glad you came," said Bolt earnestly, then he paused and frowned at the cat, but Mittens simply blinked innocently. "Last night as I was trying to sleep, I finally managed to silence my ego and let my id slide free. After that I felt the chi moving for me."

"No doubt s _omething_ was moving for you," said the cat with a smirk. "I could hear you from two rooms away."

"I may have overdone it on the brisket," admitted Bolt sheepishly, "a bit." He stood and carefully spread his front legs into a broad stance, raising his rump as if he were preparing to pounce. "I've cleansed myself of the negative thetans and I've advanced to a new spiritual state. The physical world stands ready to answer to the will of my mind. Are you prepared to be amazed?"

"Sure, why not?" said Mittens with a little less excitement than he'd expected, but she seemed engaged. "So, amaze me. Where do you want to start?"

Bolt made a show of deeply considering the question. "I've got an idea," he said, "why don't _you_ pick the objects for me to move? Tell me which one you want, and I'll control it with only my thoughts."

"That sounds fair," said the cat. Mittens stood and began to slowly pace back and forth in front of the buffet, looking up at the arrangement of knick-knacks lining its shelves. "We should probably start with something small." The little tuxedo feline pointed to one of the shelves. "How about that ugly porcelain cherub eating cherries out of a hollowed-out turtle shell on the far left of the second shelf from the top? Or, say, on the far right if you were facing the shelf from the back for some reason," she added quickly. "Do you think you could use your doggy brainwaves to knock it off the shelf and rid the world of that monstrosity?"

"Well, maybe _not off the shelf_ ," replied Bolt loudly, "because that was a gift from Penny and her mom is very fond of it." He pranced in place, giving his head and legs a shake to loosen himself up for the effort. Finally he sat back down, gripped his head with both of his front paws, and twisted it enough to elicit a satisfying popping sound from his neck. "Okay - I shall now use my mental powers to gently move the cherub on the far right of the second shelf from the top if you are looking at the shelves from the back. In 3, 2, 1 ... hnnng!"

The pooch lowered his head slightly and sucked in a breath, squinting up at the ugly figurine as he concentrated on it. For a moment nothing seemed to happen, but finally the tchotchke gave what sounded like a faint grunt of effort and it shifted slightly on the shelf.

"Wow!" said Mittens with creditable glee. "I think it actually moved! Did you see that, Bolt? Did you see it move?"

"I ... I did!" exulted Bolt. "Mittens, I think I did it; it moved!"

"Bolt, you did it!" The cat jumped up on her hind legs and wrapped her forelegs around the dog's neck in a tight, furry hug.

"I did ... I mean, of _course_ I did it," said Bolt. "You never doubted me, did you?"

"Of course I didn't doubt you ... that much," said Mittens. "But you proved me wrong, didn’t you?" She pointed eagerly at the shelf before he could respond. "Let's try it again to make sure it wasn't a fluke. See those pug salt and pepper shakers? See if you can slide them together and make them kiss."

"You mean those two on the second shelf from the bottom, second and third in from the left if you were facing it from the rear?"

"Uh, yeah," said Mittens as she cast a bemused look at the pooch.

"Okay," said Bolt with a terse nod. "It will take me a second to prep for this because moving two things requires twice the power." The white shepherd stretched and shook again before once more lowering his head and squinting up at the shelf. This time, though, he raised his right paw and pointed up at the shakers. "I _command_ you to obey my will," he intoned gruffly. "Heed my call and _kiss_."

In slow, jerking motions, first one shaker slid left and stopped, then the other slid right and stopped. The process repeated itself while Bolt's raised leg quavered with effort as he repeated, "Obey my will. Obey my will." Eventually the two shakers met with a soft "tink" of china on china.

Mittens cheered him on the entire time, and when the two gewgaws finally met, she let out a raucous meow of approval. The cat stood on her hind legs and rested her paws on the dog's shoulders so that she could look him in the eye. "Bolt, this is huge," she said with wide-eyed enthusiasm. "Do you know what this means?"

"Well, it's a neat little trick, but I don't see..." began the pooch with a self-effacing grin, but the cat interrupted him before he could finish.

"Acting careers have been restarted with way less than this," she mewed brightly. Her eyes widened. "We gotta show this to Penny! She could talk to her agent - heck, she could get a _newer, bigger, and better_ agent for something his huge." Mittens traced out a big arc with her paw while still standing with her other one still on the dog's shoulder. "I smell a world tour out of this. It's the kind of thing that could get us out of this shabby chic rural house into a proper country mansion!"

"Not Penny," said Bolt quickly. The dog's eyes were wide and he was shaking his head emphatically. "I ... I don't think she's ready for this yet. Maybe Rhino, though. We should get him in here and let him know what's happened."

"We _should_ get Rhino in here," agreed Mittens loudly.

"Rhino," called Bolt. A moment later the cat echoed the call. The two pets exchanged a puzzled glance, but before either could voice the cause of their confusion, they were distracted by a tapping at the front door. The shepherd frowned and padded over to the door. He stood on his hind legs and tugged down on the door's handle with his two front paws. When the latch released, the dog took a couple of steps back, pulling the door ajar.

To the amazement of both the cat and the dog, Rhino stood on the front porch inside his plastic bubble, yawning and scratching himself as if he had just awakened from a deep sleep. "Hey guys," he said between yawns. "I accidentally rolled off Penny's desk and out the window this morning. The sun was so warm and relaxing through my hamster ball that I guess I fell asleep in a clover patch." The little rodent scratched himself again and stretched. "Sorry I'm late. Did I miss any ... oh! Sorry, _that thing_ was this morning."

Mittens stared wide-eyed at the hamster while Bolt's mouth worked, but no sounds came out.

"Wait a cotton-pickin' minute," said the thunderstruck cat. "If you've been outside this whole time..."

"... then what was going on in here?" said Bolt, finishing the thought.

The two exchanged another perplexed glance and then both turned to stare at the hamster again.

"I dunno - why don't you tell me?" said Rhino. Then, as they both started excitedly speaking at once he held up a paw. "Well, get your stories together and tell me later," he said. "There's some hamster chow in the kitchen with my name on it." Without another word, he dropped to all fours and quickly rolled his plastic ball out of the room. As soon as he heard the excited voices fading behind him, he scoffed.

"Ya, I 'fell' out the window while you two clowns were busy trying to fool each other with parlour tricks," he said with a self-satisfied chuckle. "Hoist with your own petards. Never trust a wily hamster to do your duplicitous work." Rhino chortled to himself the rest of the way to the kitchen.

The dog and cat were strangely subdued for the rest of the day, occasionally exchanging furtive glances, but neither mentioned the events of the morning. If Rhino noticed their odd behavior, he showed no outward sign. The spirited hamster even roped the other two into a game of three-handed Whist that evening, but they just shrugged and got evasive when he prodded them about the events of the morning. On the other hand, he beat the distracted pair handily twice before Mittens announced that she was going to turn in early.

"I'll let them stew on it overnight and let them in on my trickery in the morning," he thought as he watched the cat meander out of the room.

The next morning, the hamster was surprised to find Bolt alone out in the living room, humming and gathering his chi as if the previous day had never happened.

"Hi Bolt," said the hamster hesitantly as he rolled into the room. "What's up?"

"Rhino," burbled the shepherd excitedly, "I was just about to come and get you. You gotta see this - it's _amazing_!" He picked up Rhino's hamster ball between his front paws and plunked the hapless rodent down in the pillow pocket where Mittens often napped.

The shepherd never stopped his excited chatter the whole time. "After you left yesterday, me and the cat had an awkward conversation and we both confessed to asking you to help us fool the other. When we found you were outside the whole time, we both realized that I had actually done it _on my own_! Sorry if we seemed a bit out of sorts last night, but we were so _thunderstruck_ by the enormity of it that we weren't ready to talk about it."

"Yeah, Bolt, about that..."

"I was so excited that I sat up half the night practising, and I'm getting pretty good at it," said the pooch, animatedly talking over the rodent. "Who'd have thought that it would just take you falling asleep in a clover patch to unlock my true powers?"

"I ... uh, wait," The hamster stood in his ball with his hands against the sides and looked around warily. "Where's Mittens?" he asked.

Bolt tilted his head and regarded the hamster with a wry, mildly reproachful grin. "Same place she is _every_ third Friday of the month," he said. "Penny's mom took her to the kitty groomer first thing today."

"Oh, right," said Rhino. "Bolt, you know it was me who..."

"Huh," said the shepherd, frowning dolefully up at the hamster. "I thought you'd be way more excited for me, but I'm feeling karmic waves of disbelief coming from you, disrupting the positive aura of the room."

"It's not that I don't believe you," said Rhino hastily, "it's just that yesterday it was me who..." The hamster tapered off when Bolt tilted his head and whined sadly at his friend in the ball. "What am I saying? Of _course_ you can do this."

"Of _course_ I can," said Bolt emphatically, breaking out into a big tongue-lolling smile. "Just pick something for me to move - bearing in mind that right now I can only handle little things like knick-knacks. So maybe limit it to things on the buffet." He danced from foot to foot, wagging his tail furiously and whimpering. "Come on, pick something. Pick something already."

The rotund hamster frowned at the familiarity of the situation and raised a skeptical brow, but he dutifully settled back on his haunches and pointed in the general direction of the buffet. "Okay my good sir, see if you can turn that hideous cherub around the other way," he said. "It's the one on the far left end of the second shelf from the top."

"That should be a cinch," enthused Bolt with a big grin. He turned back to the buffet and sat up on his haunches as if he were begging from the table. He worked his front paws in an approximation of magical gesticulations. "Powers of the ether, churn, churn, churn," intoned the shepherd. "Fat little cherub, turn, turn, turn." He flung his paws forward in the direction of the gaudy little figurine, which responded by jiggling slightly and then launching itself vigorously forward off of the shelf.

"Yip!" Bolt gave a bark of surprise and leapt forward with paws outstretched and upturned in front of him, winding himself as he landed on his chest with a resounding, "Oof!" Thanks to his quick reflexes, though, the ugly cherub landed safely in his grip.

"That was close," he said loudly as he stood the horrendous little ornament safely upright on the floor. "I need to contain my energy a bit better because Penny's mom is very attached to all of these things, and if any of them broke, I am sure she would blame the cat for it. We wouldn't want Mittens to be unfairly punished for something that I did, would we?"

"No, certainly not," agreed the hamster. If the rodent was impressed by the dog's feat, his demeanour barely showed it. "Do something with that picture of you and Penny at the other end of the shelf."

"Oh, I _like_ that picture," said Bolt with a broad, reminiscing smile. "The producer took that one during our first production shoot. Penny had just got her braces out the day before, so that was the first time I'd seen her smile like that." He cocked his head and studied the picture. "I'll just lay it flat..."

Before he could finish, the picture shook slightly and fell over backward, lying flat on the shelf with a muted slap.

"Impressive," said the hamster, clapping with muted enthusiasm. "Wobble that vase in the lower left shelf."

Bolt eyed the vase in question and whimpered. "I dunno," he said, "that one is pretty big. Is there something smaller you could pick?"

"I'm not asking you to lift it or anything, just wobble it," said Rhino sweetly.

Bolt shrugged. "Okay, I guess," he said. "Vase in the lower left corner, I command you to wobble slightly..."

The shepherd yelped and started when, as the vase gave the first hint of movement, the hamster threw himself against the front of his ball, launching it from its rest in the pillows to land with a loud retort beside the dog. As Bolt shied away from the sound, the unfettered hamster ball flew across the room, sliding to a rough stop against the wall beside the buffet.

"Ah ha! Caught you in the act, feline..." began Rhino, pointing an accusing finger at the empty space behind the buffet. The rodent stood on his hind legs with his front paws pressed against the side of his ball, looking up and down behind the buffet with his mouth hanging open. "I was _sure_ I would find the cat back here," he said in a hushed tone. "Where is she?"

"I _told_ you she's at the groomer," said Bolt with a bit more relief in his voice than he'd have liked.

"So ... so that _was_ you the whole time?"

Bolt frowned at the hamster. "You said that you believed in me."

"Of course I did," said Rhino in an absent tone which suggested that the situation had not entirely sunk in yet. "'Trust, but verify', I always say." The little rodent went silent for a moment before his eyes flew open wide and he clapped his paws to the sides of his muzzle. "Mittens was right; this is _huge_." He squeaked. He began to run circles in his ball, yammering non-stop while he did so.

"This disproves centuries of science," said the hamster frantically. "We need to talk to the press, and a publisher, and an agent." He paused. "I know a guy," he said emphatically. "And he knows guys who we can contact to get the word out there. Omigosh, omigosh, omigosh!" Rhino stopped his frenetic circling and jabbed a single paw toward the ceiling. "To the typewriter," he chirped. "This hamster has important letters to write."

"Bolt, you keep practising and I'll handle the rest," said the hamster excitedly. He turned and dashed out of the room, bouncing off the walls of the hall in his excitement to get to the den. When he was out of hearing and sight, there was a soft noise from the front door and a feline muzzle peeked through the bottom of the doggy flap.

"Yo, Bolt, open the door," said Mittens.

Bolt complied, using the same trick he'd employed the previous day to open the door for Rhino. "Why don't you just come through the doggy flap?" he asked as Mittens strutted in past him.

"It always catches in my fur," she said. "And I don’t want to muss it up after it's been 'groomed'," she said, smirking and making air quotes around the last word.

Bolt laughed. "Do you think he'll figure it out when he looks at the calendar and realises this is only the _second_ Friday?"

"Oh, he's a clever little guy," said Mittens. She sat by the dog and gently groomed herself while she talked. "If he hasn't figured it out by morning, I guess we should tell him before he sends off too many embarrassing letters."

"I'm surprised he fell for it," said Bolt with an enormous, satisfied grin. "Especially since it's exactly the same trick he pulled yesterday."

"Eh," said Mittens with a feline shrug, "Sometimes the tricksters are the easiest ones to trick." She paused her grooming and pointed to her left ear. "It serves him right for shooting off his mouth about his duplicity when I was still in range. He _knows_ that this cat can hear a can opener from three houses down." Mittens stretched and yawned. "Anyway, I'm gonna sneak into Penny's room and get in a quality nap."

The cat paused in the doorway and glanced back at the shepherd. "Sorry about not getting to the vase for you," she said. "I had to hightail it out of here when I heard his hamster ball hit the floor, but I guess the first two things were enough to get the job done."

"That's okay," said Bolt to the departing cat, but his brain froze before he could say any more.

_Sorry I didn't get to the vase._

"But the vase _moved_ ," he thought. "If she didn't do it..." The pooch titled his head and frowned for a moment, and then he shook it away and chuckled. "But she _did_ move it. She almost got you there, Bolt. She's a tricksy one, that Mittens!" The dog grinned and shook his head again, reminding himself never to underestimate the wile of the tuxedo cat.

He was about to head to the kitchen for another go at his bowl of kibbles when the sound of rustling grass outside reminded him that the front door was still open. "I should shut that," thought Bolt, and the moment that he pictured the closed door in his mind, the selfsame door flew shut with a resounding bang.

The shepherd yelped and jumped up and away from the noise. He turned and eyed the closed egress before dashing up to it and jamming his head through the doggy flap. Bolt looked frantically up, down, left and right, but there was naught but an empty porch and rustling grass outside.

He backed up slowly, pulling his head back into the house. He frowned and eyed the door suspiciously with every step.

_Sorry I didn't get to the vase._

"The moment I thought about it..." he muttered, "and the vase..."

The dog gave his head a good shake to settle his thoughts. "Don't lose it here, Bolt," he murmured, chuckling nervously. "It wasn't _you_ , it was just the wind. It wasn't anything paranormal; it was just a summer breeze."

He turned and trotted out of the room, glancing once more over his shoulder at the door. "Just a summer breeze," he repeated.


End file.
